Bradley Hathaway Interview
Okay, dude, you say the things and express your heart in the way that makes the girls swoon. It's the long-term thinking and true love yearning that connects with so many girls. So, if and when you hook up with that one lucky girl, there's going to be a crowd of heartbroken ones. Not sure what to ask based on that, so feel free to expound on that.
Yeah, I've always made jokes that when I do get married I won't tell anyone because it will hurt merch sales, ha. But actually, when I have had a girlfriend on the road the girls that do say something are usually pretty stoked for both her and I. There hasn't been any of that weird competition stuff that girls sometimes do so that makes me happy. And I hope that when I am married, if I ever do marry, that everyone could celebrate with us. And then I can write about being married and stuff…right now it's just the longing for that intimacy, that ideal that the whole new record is about really. I do think of love long term unlike so many people dating just to be dating. I'm just as lonely as the next person but I'm not entering into romantic relationships just because, ya know?
For the guys, us other guys (not me, I'm married), what advice can you give us to be the man that women will want to be with? Tell us your secrets, dude!
Ha, if I had some sort of secret I wouldn't be single right now! And honestly, I don't understand girls, bro. Nobody does. They don't even understand themselves. But I feel like guys need to be treating girls like women more, or ladies. Like I've been a bit more receptive lately to how older folks are treating their ladies and it's itty bitty things like I saw today on the airplane. There was an older couple next to me. The wife had the window seat and the man the aisle. He got out of his seat, backed up, and let her go first. I know I don't do stuff like that enough to any girl, not just a girlfriend. But it's that old school respect that I think is missing from us guys that needs to be restored…across the board too…for the big ones, small ones, super pretty ones, normal ones, ya know, just girls in general.
As a young person, you've had a chance to travel the world and stuff.
You've grown into adulthood. You've no doubt encountered fellow believers that experiment with controversial behavior and maybe some that have bailed on the church and Jesus. What keeps you in love with Jesus? Why do you still believe?
I was thinking about this today. I was like "I've been a Christian for over twelve years now, wow". I feel like I should be much wiser in my faith and all that stuff but when you say "love" Jesus that's probably what it should come down to anyway. I mean I was thinking about the ebbs and flows of following Jesus', the ups and downs, joys and pains.
It's like people expect to always be stoked on the Lord, or life, or whatever they are into right now but things change, your thoughts change, attitudes, most certainly your feelings. And then at the slightest sign of boredom or hardship they bail. I feel like I understand this to a point so on the periods, and notice I just don't say days anymore because the older I get I realize that some of these changes or struggles or doubts or whatever last more than a few days, or even a few weeks. I'm starting to thinking in extended periods of time now! But it's in these periods that I try to hold fast to what I know, and that lately revolves around God's love for me…maybe not always my love for Him, if that makes sense. At the end of the day I truly believe that God loves me. He accepts me. And that Jesus loves me so much he died for me and even rose from the dead and is in heaven right now waiting for me. I don't mean just "me" either...I think part of our problem is being so me oriented, the Lord didn't just die for one person, He died for all of us.
I believe first because he believes in me. And once a person really grasps that, walking away from the Lord seems not even be an option.
And man, it's just the most important thing to me, ya know? And I try to nurture that relationship by study, prayer, and other disciplines but more importantly I just am. The disciplines are crucial to maintaining a healthy relationship with God but it's when I lay my head on the pillow each night and rest in knowing that the Lord loves me. I just remind myself of his love. I just rest in Him. I'm just stoked the Lord loves me enough that He reminds with a butterfly flying in the sky just before it storms. Or through my friend speaking as we talk on the frame of my trailer. His love is all around us and I try to keep that in sight.
I'm not sure how to condense or better (if possible?) communicate your explanation in the liner notes of the album, which tell the story of the transition between then and now (poetry and singing). Care to take a stab at "the short version?"
Basically one day I wrote what came to be the first song on the new record. I just wrote the words but they came out with more melody than usual and I knew it was to be sung the way it came out. I actually never spoke it at all, just came out singin' it, and from that point on nearly everything I was writing came out a singing melody. So I found some dudes to play with and bam here we are. Now I play guitar and write songs, but I still write poems every now and again, they are just fewer and far between but at shows I still rock 'em.
Bradley Hathaway has endeared himself to our hearts with spoken word stories of music, spirituality and love. Tell us about your love life. Have you met any special someones? What are you looking for in a woman?
I've dated a couple girls the past few years, all of which I met on the road. My mentors and close folks tell me that I'm not going to find the kind of woman I need on the road, ha. It's just hard, ya know, being gone all the time. I've tried leaving them at home and I've tried bringing them on the road and each so far has had the same result. I just read this book "The Alchemist" and it blew my mind in the way that it talked about love in the meeting of Santiago and his woman. She described herself as a woman of the desert, and…this won't make any sense to anyone else. Basically, Santiago was on a journey to find his treasure, his destiny. And when he found his love he didn't want to go anymore, he thought his love was good enough and he was content to stay but she knew better and so did his mentor. She told him to go find his treasure and she would wait for him. And she was so stoked to do it as well. I read that, and the whole story was just so amazing, and my heart exploded. And I realized that sometimes I've been like Santiago and found myself willing to not throw away my dream necessarily, but surely put it on hold to invest into a relationship…maybe it was the right thing or maybe it was wrong I don't know…but I know that I want a girl that will allow me to fulfill my destiny. I truly feel I was born to do what I'm now doing. And I want to allow my love to fulfill her destiny as well. I want us to do it together! I'm stoked at the idea of having a relationship where both of us are so supportive of the other in doing whatever it is they do. And man, to be honest, Doug, the more important question I think is what kind of man do I want to be? Like earlier you asked advice for dudes…my stepmom, a wise woman who married a few times before she got it right, ha, said that what you want in a relationship you have to give. So if you want an encouraging partner then be encouraging. And on and on. But on a lighter note I really would like a girl that can cook.
How have your feelings changed over the last couple of years when an audience sings/shouts/speaks the lines from your poems while you are on stage? (please relate the feelings you got in the early days and compare & contrast them with the feelings you have now concerning the same.)
I remember the first time someone said one of my poems…it wasn't singing along like they came to do a bit later but I just forgot one of the lines and someone filled it in for me. I was stoked. I went home feeling like a champ. And then it turned into shout fest like I was a hardcore band or something, ha, it ruled. It still amazes me nearly each night that so many kids sing along to poetry. Over time it just became really fun and came to be something less special and more expected to be honest. It still humbles me when I show up to places and so many kids now it but that "feeling" of the first few times is over. But now when I hear kids singing "So Do I Love You" or "I Got Pain" or any other new song I get stoked all over again. Because what I'm doing is so different now it gives me hope that kids are and will continue to respond to whatever I'm doing at the time.
How did your book deal with Relevant pan out?
They just put out the first book and that's that.
So, what led to finding and using this house for the recording?
Well for most of the music a bro named Isaiah wrote and played on...I met him at a show and we briefly talked about me moving to Kentucky for the summer to write the record. About ten years before he remembered taking down someones tree on their land...they had like 40 acres of land and an extra old house...he called them up and asked if they still had that house and if no one was living in it could we live there that summer and write. They were down we just had to mow the lawn and Isaiah had to teach their grandkids piano. We went back in December after the Happy Fun Tour and recorded the reocord. They were so nice to us.
It sounds like a cool thing to do for a summer. What were some of the highlights?
Oh man it was so rad. It's my dream to live on a bunch of land so it was right up my alley. It was so beautiful. I made a walking trail around the property and called it the C.S. Lewis walking trail and that ruled. In the beginning of summer there were thousands fo fireflies all in the feild. I loved watching them and was bummed when they left. Just the simple and the quiet of the land was restoring. The old barn, the hay bails, the tall grass. And we didn't have a shower so we had to take baths whcih sounds like a bummer but it really causes you to slow down and chill. The big surprise to me was meeting Isaiah's girlfiend's at the time father, Jeff. He was a biologist and took us around to find bats and snakes and all kinds of cool stuff. That's what became the "Adventures in Kentucky" series that zambooie.com hosted and we put it on the Happy Fun Tour DVD as well.
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Comments
Why doesn't anyone comment? Bradley is amazing.
this man is awesome. very raw but at at the same time ties everything into the christian faith. fricken awesome
I love Bradley he is kool!!!
Bradley has got a beutiful heart. Jesus is there, in him.
...just tell Bradley I'll wait in my desert for him...
